Hi again! Wow, I just wanted to say thank you to those who have so far given this story a favourite, follow and a kind review. I'm glad to know that you're enjoying this so far. I hope that I can continue to please you throughout the rest of this modified AOU, Clintasha style. Here is your next slice of Clintasha cake.

Best Friends.

"My best friend is alive," the Black Widow breathed, allowing herself to truly experience the joy and relief to flow through her veins. Years ago she would not have been able to feel such things without feeling something much worse – the sting of a sharp blow to the face, for instance, or the storm of a hundred kicks being delivered to her whilst she lay on the floor.

Having her mind pulled out of her once again and played with. Be shown images of her violent and bloody past.

Psychological torture was the worst of her scars. The most difficult to heal.

And yet somehow the man lying down on the hospital bed was slowly mending them.

They would never heal completely, but Clint Barton could at least take her mind off of them.

But Clint Barton had also done something else, and it was something that hadn't been done to her since she was in the Red Room.

He had broken her. From the inside.

Oh, the Red Room may have broken her physically or mentally, but they had never broken her from the inside like Clint had.

That damn well frightened her. It still did. But when Clint was with her it all went away.

"You're brooding."

Suddenly the object of her thoughts materialised into view. Two sparkling, sleepy blue eyes stared at her fair, unmarred face. Again, the thought of her making it out of another mission without a scratch and he getting hurt occupied her mind. Emerald eyes fed on the sight of his face, which had finally returned to its normal colour. And that smile; that crooked smile he was giving her. It made her heart tug inside her ribcage.

She returned it with her own infamous half smile, glad to know that his cocky side was there immediately after regaining consciousness. It came out in full now that the other Avengers had gone and left the two of them alone together.

"Well if I'm brooding it's your fault," she joked, tilting her head to the right and bending forwards in her seat so that her face was leaning over his. Her hands were folded neatly in her lap, itching to touch him, though she knew that if she did she wouldn't be able to stop herself from giving herself more.

For a moment Clint's face was blank, and in that moment Natasha felt a flicker anxiety. His eyes looked to be far away, stretching out for a distant memory – she suddenly realised what would be going through his mind. He took her joke seriously.

'Shit.'

"Clint, it's not your fault. Yeah, you sure as hell scared me to death again when you got hit, but it's nothing that hasn't happened to me neither. We were trained for this kind of thing. We've always known that one day one of us won't come out of a mission alive. We're only human."

He blinked. She blinked in return. He blinked again. Then a long sigh blew out of his mouth, his eyes being diverted to some object to his left before returning to her.

"Is there anything you don't look at as business?"

His tone was completely serious, yet his eyes glinted with kind humour. His carefree attitude was back as well. No matter how many times he got battered, Clint Barton always shone through whenever he regained consciousness.

Natasha pursed her lips and tipped her head to the left, hair flicking the sides of her face as she pretending to be in thought. "One or two things, maybe. Taking care of my guns is one of them. Threatening Stark with all the ways I could kill him with my little finger too."

A low laugh rumbled from the archer's chest causing Natasha to gift him with a genuine smile. Against the technological backdrop which was Stark's advanced monitors, screens and gear, her smile lit up the entire room. Clint's own smile grew wider, as though hers was mending him faster than the machine which he lay under.

On instinct, she took his larger hand in her own, curling her fingers carefully over the edge of his palm. "And then there's you."

Her heart was tightening in her chest with each passing moment. Saying the words alone still had the strangling effect on her like they did when she first began to see him the way she did now. And by some miracle he looked at her the same way.

Yet it was in these solitary moments without the rest of the team – most irritably Stark's snooping nose – present that the two Avengers could be themselves completely.

"Oh yeah," the archer teased, cockily arching one blonde eyebrow. God, did he look sexy whenever he did that. "And what am I to you?"

There were so many words; so many phrases which she could use to describe to him just what he was to her exactly. Her guard. Her eyes. Her anchor, or rock; ally, partner, friend.

As the thoughts drove through her mind, like a train following the railroad, her right hand had slowly and subconsciously gone to sit delicately on top of his head. Her fingers carded tenderly through his hair, and for a few moments, she watched as the archer relaxed under her touch, closing his eyes and allowing a long sigh to escape his nostrils. She leaned closer to him, her face now only centimetres from his, and the tip of their noses nearly brushing. Emerald and sapphire were fiercely magnetised.

"You're the best part of me."

'My everything.' Though they were the words that she left unspoken.

However, somehow, she knew that he understood what she meant. What he absolutely was to her.

So, in this I incorporated the whole 'my best friend is ok' thing like Natasha does in the film. Of course, there's so much more to just being 'best friends' with these two, and since this is Clintasha and it's tagged as romance, you can be sure to expect some romantic moments in the chapters to come. I promise! There's gonna be way more romance in the next chapter during the fight with (SPOILERS) Ultron, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, and when they ( MORE SPOILERS) reach Clint's farm in the aftermath of the chaos of that fight. You have my word. Former Air Cadet's honour. ;)

Please let me know what you think! I always love to hear from you all! :)